Madam Speaker, it is a pleasure to address this bill today.
As other people have said before me, I too am very disappointed that the government has chosen for the 48th time to use time allocation to shut down debate on this bill. I hope, as it says, it is trying to give power to the aboriginal people at whatever level of government it thinks this is going to slot into. I hope the government is not suggesting to those aboriginal people, who are hopefully going to form some sort of new and improved democratic system amongst their own people, that they follow the Liberal example of shutting down debate in an open forum. I certainly hope that is not their hope and dream.
Someone recently explained to me what the definition of insanity is. Insanity is explained as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result every time. If that is the case, then I think the Liberal government is pushing the very levels of insanity. It thinks that by tinkering with the way it treats aboriginal people, by tinkering with something like this land management bill, that somehow prosperity will spring from the ground and aboriginal people will suddenly be much better off because of it. But such is not the case.
The government is again treating aboriginal people not the same as all other Canadians, but in a special category, a separate category. It is not like a municipal government. It is not really like a provincial government. It is some other sort of government that will get different treatment, like the aboriginals have had for far too long in this country. Instead of having full and equal access to all parts of the Canadian mosiac they are shuffled off into a special category, with a special set rules, a special set of tax laws, special land use contracts and all that stuff. Suddenly they expect that they will become as prosperous as other Canadians. It is not going to happen.
I have 15 reserves in my riding. I am quite familiar with the issues. I met last week with realtors in my riding who sell both titled land, fee simple land, as well as land and houses that are leased from aboriginal groups and sold as condominium developments and so on in the local area. These realtors, which represent some of the finest developers and realtors in our area, are more than willing to sell this product. They know about the bill. Their question is: What are we to tell our clients about the certainty of the land we are selling to them? They are selling land based on a 99 year lease. They say that there is a 99 year lease so it is okay. They say that may well be, but look at what has happened with the Musqueam Band. Instead of helping the aboriginal people to develop their land with surety and certainty, they are pulling away and backing off. Instead of the much needed funds that aboriginal people need to develop their land and their opportunities, that money is drying up because people are saying they cannot be sure of the system.
It is not just the Reform Party that is saying this. I would like to quote from a letter that was sent by the leader of the Liberal Party of British Columbia. When it comes to land use and assurances about expropriation and so on, Gordon Campbell writes in his letter:
I was given similar assurances by former Minister Tom Siddon that Musqueam leaseholders' rights and interests would be fully protected before he would sign off on the transfer of authority over these leases to the band.
That was a promise made by a minister of the government to Gordon Campbell when he was the mayor of Vancouver. The minister promised him that the rights and interests would be fully protected. That commitment was not honoured.
He further wrote:
The Musqueam Band is now using their unchecked authority to extract unconscionable lease and tax hikes from those residents, while your government has sat idly by and done nothing.
When we have to live with this sort of bill it does not become a theoretical exercise. It does not become an esoteric discussion of the pros and cons of clauses 4, 5 and 6 and the rest of it. It becomes an absolute economic life and death issue to the people who are concerned. They do not say whatever and take their chances. The proof is in the pudding. The proof is that we cannot trust the government if it is not in the bill.
One minister may have good intentions. I never doubt the Minister of Indian Affairs and Northern Development. She says whatever she says in the House and I take it at face value until proven otherwise. The problem is that if it is not in the bill we cannot trust the word of anyone in this place. We cannot trust it because that minister may be gone tomorrow. There may be somebody else in her place. That minister could conveniently forget. There could be a challenge to the constitutionality of it or the finality of it by an Indian band. There could be a regular court challenge. Who knows where it might end up.
By not explicitly covering the concerns that we have brought forward in amendment, then I believe the government is ensuring that because of that uncertainty we will doom aboriginal people again not to be treated like others, but to be treated differently.
That is a shame. As I discussed with the realtors the other day, we can show example after example around the world where the creation of wealth, the creation of prosperity, is contingent on the right to own, possess and enjoy property.
There are some things we might want to do as a collectivity. We might want to have the local arena owned as a collectivity. But when everything we touch is owned as a collectivity, then how are we ever going to have prosperity? It cannot work.
I shake my head over a similar kind of philosophy which exists in the Nisga'a agreement. In my province there are particular types of industries that are in decline. I can name them. I used to be in one of them. I was a logging contractor. The future for logging is not what it once was in our province. It is a declining industry. It certainly is very important, but for a variety of reasons, including the actions of this government, it is in decline.
What about the fishing industry? It is not the industry it once was. It is a very important industry, it is still a key industry, but it is not, as a percentage of our provincial output, what it once was. I could give other examples.
What are they doing with the Nisga'a agreement? They are making a deal with this group of people to ensure that they are stuck in industries which are doomed not to grow. They will make sure they stay in those industries which are in decline. They will make them hewers of wood, carriers of water and fishermen. That will suddenly spring great prosperity upon these people.
The government has basically told these people that it is going to give them the industries that are in decline and it will take all the rest of it. It will create the wealth and enjoy the prosperity, and they can stay on their land out there and be tied to the industries that are in decline. The government will take the cream of the crop.
Again aboriginal people are going to be shuffled off to the side and told to take what they are given. The government will take the prosperous, the growing, the innovative industries for itself. What a shame.
In addition to the concerns I mentioned about private property being treated differently and the fact that without certainty we are not going to get development, and without assurances on consultation with local municipalities we are not going to get good, harmonious working relationships, besides the obvious, I would like to mention another part of this letter that is very alarming. It is the same letter from the Liberal leader of the opposition in British Columbia who writes about why this bill scares aboriginal women living on reserve.
When this bill passes there will be no assurances on the breakup of a marriage that the woman will have any access to what we would say is rightfully hers, half of the property the couple has built together. The reason we have so many signatures from so many aboriginal women's groups saying “Please do not pass this bill” is because they are afraid for their financial well-being in the case of marital breakdown.
When this government pays lip service both to aboriginal people and to women, saying that it is concerned about both, and in this case proves that it is not concerned about either, then I share the concern of those women who have come to us. All I can do is empathize with them, tell them that we do not agree with the bill and that we are doing everything we can to put amendments in place to protect them. We will continue to work on their behalf.